Questions about Raid 0

Hi guys, just looking for some advice for setting up my new SSDs in Raid 0 that will be used just for gaming storage, without having to re-install my OS on my boot SSD.

My Rig:

Asus P8Z77-V LK Mobo
Intel IB i5-3570k @ 4.2GHz
Noctua DH-14 CPU Cooler
MSI 980 4G Gaming GPU
16GB GSkill 8GB x 2 1600MHz CL-10 DDR3
Windows 8.1
2 TB Seagate HDD
2 ~120GB SSDs (Intel and Crucial)
Asus Optical Drive
Asus 27" 1440p Display

I just purchased 2 Samsung EVO 250GB SSDs looking to set them up in RAID 0, I came across this link explaining how to set up a RAID post OS Installation (http://tinyurl.com/o8f7v6f). Has anyone had any experience using this or a similar method? Does anyone have input as to whether it could be a bad approach? Is there any other advice or more efficient options available?

I also have a Question about RAM (sorry wrong section). Would it be recommended to upgrade to either GSkill Trident 1600MHz CL-7 or Corsair Vengeance Pro 2133MHz CL-9 RAM for upcoming games like Witcher 3 etc...I've read that higher frequency and/or lower CL helps with Min Frames. Just with "Next-Gen" here, being at 1440p I want to get the smoothest possible experience for this game (Witcher 3) specifically, but also for future titles. Any advice as far as my RAM goes, I've read 1600MHz with CL-10 isn't that good overall, so I'm just looking for my best options. Also will my i5-3570k and motherboard handle RAM with higher voltage than 1.5V?

Any opinions or advice is greatly appreciated in advance!

Thanks Guys.

I've never had luck changing sata modes without a fresh windows install. If your going to raid you might as well have your os on it. You probably wont notice a difference in games anyway.

You might be able to overclock your ram, 1.6v should be safe. Again not much of a fps difference.

Maybe I'll just keep them as individual drives then, it seems I'm grasping at straws looking for performance gains where there won't be much at all. At least I'll have the game on SSD opposed to HDD, should help with load times and possibly texture stream considering it's open-world. I'm expecting a pretty big leap with the Witcher 3's open-world compared to past games, maybe I should wait until the game is out for a bit to see if other people are getting any significant performance gains with other RAM configs.

Definitely opt for no RAID if you're going to just use the SSDs for storage (game installs and the like). While RAID0 makes it a nicer ~500GB package - you also double the chances of failure.

With the SATA3 interface, it's nearly saturated (~66%) as-is with a standalone drive, anyway.

you can set the drives up in the computer as a RAID 0 and clone your OS over to that raid via Acronis.

I personally would just do a fresh install since you have a desktop and its not that hard to do a fresh install compared to a laptop.

Plus if you buy acronis to do this you can now start a back up routine

Raid 0 helps for the 4K access, which is the only place that is hurting in modern day transfers and that doesn't even remotely reach bandwidth limits

I'm leaning towards just leaving them as individual drives at this point, I don't want to deal with possible headaches with the SATA drivers is something doesn't work accordingly, and I rather not have to clone or move data around on my current drives. As far as the RAM I'll just wait for the game to come out to see if there are any significant gains via a RAM upgrade, as of right now I can't convince myself to spend ~$200 for a few more minimum fps.

you have 16GB of ram so thats enough for any game unless you are trying to load it into ram or you have some high usage program in the background sucking up ram, which should just be closed anyways

SomeGuy133 said:

you have 16GB of ram so thats enough for any game unless you are trying to load it into ram or you have some high usage program in the background sucking up ram, which should just be closed anyways

Click to expand...

Do you use Acronis? How does backing-up work, I've never really done it..does it back up all my storage into a cloud or a dedicated drive of my choice? Is it a limited amount of data/folders?

Acronis allows several options. I haven't used it in awhile because i kinda abandoned my backups for several reasons...not due to the program itself. I can only tell you y experience.

The number one and issue i ran into is that the backup drive must be the exact same volume number at all times otherwise it bricks. I was using an external enclosure and i had difficulty keeping it to G drive (using G for this example) if the external showed up as Y it would be like "where is G drive?" I am not experienced in all the stuff that goes into forcing drives to a letter so i experienced a bit of difficulty because windows was being a d bag about it. Also acronis wouldn't allow using Y drive for that back up. It was weird.

For the back up procress it was super easy and restore was awesome. I had it back up like weekly and delete anything older than a month. So I had 4 weeks and 2/3/4/5/6/7/8... month iterations. I ideally when i get my new desktop i will have dailys for 14 days then weeklys for 8 weeks than monthlys.

You have to choose a drive of your choice and make sure it is always the same drive path. Letter or path I.E. G/my backups/C drive/backup1.(whatever the extension is)

if this doesn't make sense sorry PM me for a better repsonse its 4 am and i have been drinking,.

I try would (have) recommend having separate SSD, one for OS and the second for Games. Non of the hassles of Raid0 , and you can reload windows and still ahve your steam folder .

Plus your windows background stuff does not affect your games.

Also Raid0 does not make stuff that much faster in the real world.